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Accommodation and Potters Shed in peaceful Paxton, a small village with a pub and General Store between Cessnock and Wollombi (2 hours drive from Sydney).

A half acre of house, studio and garden. Potters Shed is tiled 6x5 metres enclosed and 6x5 metres open. A gas kiln 660ml cubed with chimney. Good condition. 2 electric throwing wheels.

House is brick and timber with 2 bedrooms with queen size beds and 3 bathrooms.

Available for rent from mid February to end of May 2011. $350 per week including internet cable connection.

Contact James via jameswhitington @ yahoo.com.au or phone 02 4998 0243

Looking from the second bedroom towards the potters shed

The kitchen and living room

Tree house - sleeps 2 so you can have a night in the rugged outdoors and natural airconditioning

The kitchen and living room with its cosy fireplace

Potters Shed

Potters Shed

© Crown Street Press ABN 1668 208 6981

Hide details for Mary Place Gallery Press Release

Mary Place Gallery Press Release

EXHIBITION AT MARY PLACE GALLERY, JUNE 20 – JULY 2, 2006
JAMES WHITINGTON : Monoprints
CROWN STREET PRESS : A Printmakers Collection

Exhibiting from Tuesday June 20 to July 2, 2006 at Mary Place Gallery in Paddington will be a collection of rare prints held in two parts. Downstairs on Level one there will be prints for sale from the collection of James Whitington spanning his 28 years as a master printmaker both at Whaling Road Studios and Crown Street Press with some of Australia’s legendary artists – Charles Blackman, Russell Drysdale, Donald Friend, Arthur and David Boyd, Judy Cassab, David Rankin, John Firth-Smith, Keith Looby, Ann Thomson, John Peart and others.

The Upstairs Gallery will largely feature monoprints by James Whitington representing 15 of his recent works.

Whitington became a master printmaker on the cusp of a renaissance in Sydney printmaking during the 1980’s that expanded into the 1990’s and has continued since. In that time he developed his own language as an artist exhibiting paintings and monoprints in a one-man exhibition at Blaxland Gallery in 1989 and continuing to exhibit in private and regional galleries since.

In Sydney in the 1980’s printmaking was only just beginning to emerge encouraged by Miller Street Print Workshop and Port Jackson Press. Very few artists had made printmaking an important part of their work. Fred Williams had. He’d been making etchings in his own studio, but few other artists were doing their own printmaking. The master printmaker became the bridge and the guide for the artist/printmaker.

The 1980’s was a time of great experimentation in painting and some artists looked to printmaking, just as Williams had, not only as an important artform in itself, but as a way of playing with ideas for paintings. Others like Brett Whitely and Donald Friend, saw it as a means to express their draughtsmanship.

“When I began working with Donald he told me that his last etching had been done as a student with Sydney Long,” says Whitington. “When I scratched a plate to show Donald how to draw into the wax, he took the plate from me and immediately turned it into one of his well known portraits of “Melville”.

Brett Whitely was amazed that each print in an edition had to be inked and wiped separately to be printed.

Friend and Whitington worked frequently through 1987 producing 23 images. When Friend had a stroke and lost the use of his left hand he just changed hands, and inspired by an image from a book cover on Egyptian art, he created a “farewell to life” etching titled “Profile” which will be shown at the Mary Place Gallery exhibition along with several of Friend’s preparation sketches.

During the late 1970’s and 80’s, Whitington was experimenting with etching techniques, making new discoveries and constantly improvising. A new aquatint box was built and he made aquatints for Charles Blackman, who flattered him with the titles “aquatinting genius” and “humble giant”.

Whitington says that “artists have different approaches to etching, Charles Blackman has a hand precise as a laser, Arthur and David Boyd’s style were different again. Arthur conjured up the images, while David just liked to let fly. With my personal prints, I work from the inner self and I am empowered by the unpredictability of my line and the surprises that I create for myself.”

James Whitington: Monoprints and Crown Street Press: A Printmakers Collection
Opening Tuesday June 20, 6.30pm to 9.00pm
Show continues until July 2nd, 2006. Tuesday – Sunday 11.00am to 6.00pm
Mary Place Gallery, 12 Mary Place, Paddington (between Brown and Liverpool Streets)
For enquiries contact Alison Holland on 0414 289 778
Preview the exhibition at www.commissionaire.net